Four top names bid for major NY project

L&L Holdings announced today that four Pritzker-Prize winning architects are participating this week in the conceptual design phase of a competition to design a new office tower at 425 Park Avenue. The four firms were among the 11 L&L initially invited for the competition of which nine chose to enter.

The brief calls for is a 650,000 sq ft tower designed to high LEED sustainability standards. Located in the heart of New York’s famed Plaza District, 425 Park Avenue will be the first full-block office development on this historic stretch in half a century. The district is known for its doublewide boulevard with attractive green medians, modern art exhibits, and broad sidewalks.

The architects’ concepts will be presented on 10 and 11 July to L&L Holding executives, as well as its competition director, Vishaan Chakrabarti, Partner at SHoP architects, Director of the Center for Urban Real Estate at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and juror for WAN’s forthcoming Civic buildings awards program.

“Each of these architects shares L&L Holdings conviction that this project represents an extraordinary opportunity to be at the forefront of contemporary office building design, and like the legendary Park Avenue buildings that preceded it, serve as a global standard bearer for the workplace of the future,” noted Chakrabarti. “We are excited by the thought-provoking concepts that these legendary architects produced.”

L&L Holdings anticipates a two-year design and construction permitting process, which will commence in 2013. Completion of the tower is slated for 2017.